This popular introduction to phonetics describes how languages use a variety of different sounds, many of them quite unlike any that occur in well-known languages. Peter Ladefoged rightly earned his reputation as one of the worlds leading linguists, and students benefitted from his accessible writing and skill in communicating ideas. The third edition of his engaging introduction to phonetics has now been fully updated to reflect the latest trends in the field. It retains Peter Ladefoged's expert writing and knowledge, and combines them with Sandra Ferrari Disners essential updates on topics including speech technology. "Vowels and Consonants" explores a wide range of topics, including the main forces operating on the sounds of languages; the acoustic, articulatory, and perceptual components of speech; and the inner workings of the most modern text-to-speech systems and speech recognition systems in use today. The third edition is supported by an accompanying website featuring new data, and even more reproductions of the sounds of a wide variety of languages, to reinforce learning and bring the descriptions to life, at www.wiley.com/go/ladefoged.